Mecklenburg County hasn’t had a public beach in about 40 years. So when the new beach at Ramsey Creek Park in Cornelius opened two weeks ago, there was a lot of pent up demand.

So many people showed up Memorial Day weekend that traffic jammed nearby streets and hundreds were turned away. Neighbors complained. So county park officials will meet with neighbors Thursday to talk about how they're responding.

The Iredell County Sheriff's office is investigating why a rescue diver died and two others were hurt as they searched for a drowning victim on Lake Norman Monday.

The three divers were searching in deep murky water Monday afternoon when they had an unspecified "emergency." Two of the divers swam to shore and were hospitalized. But 28-year-old Bradley Long did not resurface.

Updated Tuesday, May 24, 2016The first public beach on the Mecklenburg County side of Lake Norman is on schedule to open this weekend, just in time for the Memorial Day holiday. That's after state and county officials reached a compromise to use local police for temporary traffic control near the park.

More than 150 people showed up at a hearing in Hickory Tuesday night to express concern about the 30 million tons of coal ash stored at Duke Energy’s Marshall Steam Station, on Lake Norman. Thirty-two speakers quoted biblical passages, read poetry and urged state regulators to require Duke to transfer the ash to new, lined landfills, away from the lake.

Mecklenburg Police are continuing their investigation into the disappearance last week of Bianca Richardson Tanner of Charlotte. On Sunday, members of the department’s Homicide and Missing Persons Unit planned to knock on doors in the 1000 block of Druid Circle, off Stateville Avenue, where she was last seen a week ago. Detectives had planned a 2 p.m. meeting at the intersection of Double Oaks Road and Newland Road, across from the Double Oaks Pool. A $5,000 reward is being offered in the case.